‘Millennials’ is often the word used to describe people born in between the 1980’s and early 2000’s. This generation has discovered the secret to be a worldwide sensation with something as simple as a camera, a laptop, good editing, and research skills. It seems awfully simple from an external perspective considering technology fastened the process of most things although, people tend to ignore the thought, passion and ability that go into the success.
It’s not an uncommon opinion that millennials come off as ‘ungrateful’ because we didn’t have the same struggles that our parents and their parents had before them. In all fairness, I see why it seems that way – our generation is split right down the middle; people who want to make a change, and people who take what they have for granted. But those same critics ignore the fact that every generation has their own struggles. Hell, our grandparents could say the same about our parents.
I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I have been told that I am too ‘opinionated’ or ‘vocal’ for an eighteen-year-old. Or the looks adults throw at me when I tell them that I don’t mind working two or three jobs because it will take me a step further into doing what I love even though I haven’t fully figured it out yet. There’s some ridiculous stigma surrounding the idea of not knowing what to do with your life at 18, which I will never comprehend because you’ve lived your life in the bubble that is a school environment – how are you supposed to know for sure, what you want out of the future?
For that matter, it just encourages me just as it should others. We have all these platforms, and opportunities that were not available in the past so why should we not utilize them? “You snooze, you lose” is really a saying that carries major weight to it these days – things can disappear or change within a split second, it sucks – but it’s the truth. There is no need to feel discouraged because someone tells you that you can’t do this, or you can’t do that.
The CEO of Tumblr started the site when he was only 20 and it took off within a few weeks. 6 years later, he has a net-worth of over $200 million.
Snapchat is run by a 26-year old.
Firefly is run by a 17-year old.
Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth (HAPPY) is run by a 15-year old.
WordPress is run by a 26-year old.
Flogg is run by a 17-year old.
Braigo Labs is run by a 14-year old.
What’s stopping you?
If you want it, go get it. Stop beating around the bush and wasting time. (Way to be cliché, I know.) Nothing is impossible.
Despite who you are, hard work always prospers. You don’t need to be rich to make a change, you don’t need to have a degree from the best universities to have an impact. Pretty much anything you do can be a passion project and I can assure you that it will have some positive impact on someone. A small change is still a change.
Almost every person in this generation is more or less educated on the global situation at hand, enough to know that it isn’t right. And unfortunately, not a lot of people see that because we are supposedly “too young” to be educated, we are.
Enough to know that we should not have a racist, sexist Cheeto sitting in the Oval Office running the world’s greatest superpower.
Enough to know that women and men should both be granted the same rights, same pay, same jobs and much more.
Enough to know that African-American’s or people of color should be treated with the same respect, and dignity that a white man is.
Enough to know that depression, suicide, and any mental illness is worthy enough to be spoken about, and it doesn’t mean that the person that is going through this is problematic. The stigma is close to being non-existent.
Enough to know that a human being can love another human being regardless of their gender because at the end of the day – it all comes down to love and contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with whether or not both the people have dicks or not.
There are girls and boys as young as 12 that are activists for female empowerment, LGBTQ rights, advocates for the refugee crisis and so much more. Anyone who takes the time to read any ‘21 under 21’ article – will know that some of the world’s greatest innovations and ideas come from the mind of a 16-year-old. If someone can have triumphs as big as starting their own companies or organisations at 16, imagine the success and changes that will come later on in their life.
All in all, I am going to conclude with this.
This world is full of opportunities if you open your eyes and see that they’re usually standing right in front of you.
Don’t miss out on something because of the fear of failure, or the fear of what people think because one day, in 50 years, you will regret it.
Someone else would have taken your idea and made the difference that you could have made.
Make mistakes, do the wrong things – it will lead you to the right things. It will get you on a better path, if you open yourself up to it.
Time to be cliché again but live out YOUR dreams, not your parent’s dreams. Do what makes your soul tingle, what unleashes the butterflies in your stomach.
It will all be worth it.
